THE INTERACTIVE PHENOMENAL FIELD AND THE LIFE SPACE: A Sketch of an Ecological Concept of Psychotherapy
Abstract
Based on the phenomenology of the body and ecological psychology, this paper introduces a se- ries of concepts that enable us to overcome the still prevailing idea of an inner psyche and a cor- responding individualistic view of psychopathology. These concepts are the phenomenal field, lived space, intercorporeality, and body memory; they correspond to an embodied, enactive, and ecological view of the mind. On their basis, psychiatric illnesses may be conceived as relational disorders resulting in various restrictions and impairments of the patient’s lived space. The main tasks of psychotherapy, then, are to use the interactive phenomenal field as a means of restructur- ing the patient’s relational patterns and to support his or her capacity to engage in more benefi- cial interactions with others. In this way, phenomenology can valuably contribute to a deeper understanding of the intricate processes of the psychotherapeutic encounter.
References
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Amini, F., Lewis, T., Lannon, R., Louie, A., Baumbacher, G., McGuinness, T. et al. (1996). Affect, attachment, memory: contributions toward psychobiologic integration. Psychiatry, 59 (3), 213–39.
Barker, R.G. (1968). Ecological psychology. Concepts and methods for studying the environment of human behavior. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Beebe, B., Lachmann, F. (2003). The relational turn in psychoanalysis: a dyadic systems view from infant research. Contemporary psychoanalysis, 39 (3), 379–409.
Brandchaft, B., Atwood, G.E., Stolorow, R.D. (2014). Psychoanalytic treatment: an intersubjec- tive approach. New York, London: Routledge.
Casey, E. (2000). Remembering. A phenomenological study. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Cohen, D.B. (2006). Family constellations: an innovative systemic phenomenological group process from Germany. The Family Journal, Jul., 14 (3), 226–233.
Davis, M. (Ed.) (1982). Interaction rhythms. Periodicity in communicative behavior. New York: Human Sciences Press.
De Haan, S. (2019). An enactive approach to psychiatry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gendlin, E.T. (2012). Focusing-oriented psychotherapy: a manual of the experiential method. New York: Guilford Press.
Gerson, S. (2004). The relational unconscious: a core element of intersubjectivity, thirdness, and clinical process. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Jan., 73 (1), 63–98.
Gibson, J.J. (1986). The ecological approach to visual perception. Hillsdale, NJ: Psychology Press. Graumann, C.F. (Ed.) (1978). kologische Perspektiven in der Psychologie. Bern: Huber. Griffero, T. (2014). Atmospheres and lived space. Studia Phaenomenologica, 14, 29–51. Griffero, T. (2016). Atmospheres: aesthetics of emotional spaces. New York, London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315568287
Francesetti, G. (2015). From individual symptoms to psychopathological fields: towards a field perspective on clinical human suffering. British Gestalt journal, 24 (1), 5–19.
Froese, T., Fuchs, T. (2012). The extended body: a case study in the neurophenomenology of social interaction. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 11 (2), 205–236.
Fuchs, T. (2005). Corporealized and disembodied minds. A phenomenological view of the body in melancholia and schizophrenia. Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, 12 (2), 95–107.
Fuchs, T. (2007). Psychotherapy of the lived space: a phenomenological and ecological concept. American journal of psychotherapy, 61 (4), 423–39.
Fuchs, T. (2011). Body memory and the unconscious. In: G. Lohmar, J. Brudzinska (Eds.),
Founding psychoanalysis. Phenomenological theory of subjectivity and the psychoanalytical experience (pp. 69–82). Dordrecht: Kluwer. Fuchs,T.(2012).Thephenomenologyofbodymemory.In:S.Koch,T.Fuchs,M.Summa,C.M l-
ler (Eds.), Body memory, metaphor and movement (pp. 9–22). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Fuchs, T. (2013a). Depression, intercorporality and interaffectivity. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 20 (7–8), 219–38.
Fuchs, T. (2013b). The phenomenology of affectivity. In: K.W. Fulford, M. Davies, R. Gipps,
G. Graham, J. Sadler, G. Stanghellini et al. (Eds.), Oxford handbook of the philosophy of psychiatry (pp. 612–631). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fuchs, T. (2017). Intercorporeality and interaffectivity. In: C. Meyer, J. Streeck, S. Jordan (Eds.),
Intercorporeality: emerging socialities in interaction (pp. 3–24). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Fuchs, T. (2018). Ecology of the brain. The phenomenology and biology of the embodied mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fuchs, T., De Jaegher, H. (2009). Enactive intersubjectivity: participatory sense-making and
mutual incorporation. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Dec., 8 (4), 465–86. Fuchs, T., Schlimme, J.E. (2009). Embodiment and psychopathology: a phenomenological perspective. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, Nov., 22 (6), 570–5.
Kendon, A. (1990). Conducting interaction: patterns of behavior in focused encounters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leder, D. (1990). The absent body. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Levenson, R.W., Ruef, A.M. (1997). Physiological aspects of emotional knowledge and rapport.
In: W. Ickes (Ed.), Empathic accuracy (pp. 44–72). New York: Guilford Press.
Lewin, K. (1936). Principles of topological psychology / Tr. by F. Heider, G. Heider. New York: McGraw Hill. https://doi.org/10.1037/10019-000
Mehling, W.E., Wrubel, J., Daubenmier, J.J., Price, C.J., Kerr, C.E., Silow, T., Gopisetty, V., Stewart, A.L. (2011). Body awareness: a phenomenological inquiry into the common ground
of mind-body therapies. Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine, Apr., 6, 6. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of perception / Tr. by C. Smith. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1964). Le visible et l’invisible. Paris: Gallimard.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1973). Adventures of the dialectic / Tr. by J. Bien. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
Merten, J., Krause, R. (2003). What makes good therapists fail? In: P. Philippot, E.J. Coats, R.S.
Feldman (Eds.), Nonverbal behavior in clinical settings (pp. 111–24). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Meyer, C., Streeck, J., Jordan, J.S. (Eds.) (2017). Intercorporeality: emerging socialities in interaction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190210465.001.0001
Mikulincer, M., Shaver, P.R. (2012). An attachment perspective on psychopathology. World Psychiatry, Feb., 11 (1), 11–5.
Minkowski, E. (1970). Lived time: phenomenological and psychopathological studies / Tr. by N. Metzel. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
Nielsen, K., Ward, T. (2018). Towards a new conceptual framework for psychopathology: embodiment, enactivism, and embedment. Theory & Psychology, Nov., 28 (6), 800–822. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354318808394
Pallagrosi, M., Fonzi, L. (2018). On the concept of praecox feeling. Psychopathology, 51 (6), 353–361.
Palazzoli, M.S. (1988). The work of Mara Selvini Palazzoli. Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson. Payne, H., Koch, S., Tantia, J., Fuchs, T. (Eds.) (2019). Embodied perspectives in psychotherapy. London, New York: Routledge.
Pollatos, O., Herbert, B.M., Wankner, S., Dietel, A., Wachsmuth, C., Henningsen, P. et al.
(2011). Autonomic imbalance is associated with reduced facial recognition in somatoform
disorders. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Oct., 71 (4), 232–239. Pollatos,O.,Kurz,A.L.,Albrecht,J.,Schreder,T.,Kleemann,A.M.,Sch pf,V.etal.(2008).Re- duced perception of bodily signals in anorexia nervosa. Eating Behaviors, Dec., 9 (4), 381–388.
Ramseyer, F., Tschacher, W. (2011). Nonverbal synchrony in psychotherapy: coordinated body
movement reflects relationship quality and outcome. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Jun., 79 (3), 284–295.
Ratcliffe, M. (2008). Feelings of being. Phenomenology, psychiatry and the sense of reality. Oxford:
Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780199206469.001.0001 Ruemke, H.C. (1990). The nuclear symptoms of schizophrenia and the praecox feeling / Tr. by J. Neeleman. History of Psychiatry, Sep., 1 (3), 331–341.
Seikkula, J. (2019). Psychosis is not an illness but a survival strategy in severe stress: a proposal
for an addition to a phenomenological point of view. Psychopathology. https://doi.org/10.1159/ 000500162
Seikkula, J., Alakare, B., Aaltonen, J. (2011). The comprehensive open-dialogue approach in
Western Lapland: II. Long-term stability of acute psychosis outcomes in advanced community care. Psychosis, 3 (3), 192–204.
Stiefel, I.P., Harris, P., Zollmann, A.W. (2002). Family constellation: a therapy beyond words. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, Mar., 23 (1), 38–44.
Stanghellini, G. (2004). Disembodied spirits and deanimated bodies: the psychopathol-ogy of common sense. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198520894.001.0001 Stanghellini, G. (2016). Lost in dialogue. Anthropology, psychopathology, and care. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi. org/10.1093/med/9780198792062.001.0001
Stanghellini, G. (2019). The PHD method for psychotherapy. Integrating phenomenology, hermeneutics and psychodynamics. Psychopathology. https://doi.org/ 10.1159/000500272 Stern, D.N. (1985). The interpersonal world of the infant. A view from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology. New York: Basic Books. Stern, D.N., Bruschweiler-Stern, N., Harrison, A.M., Lyons-Ruth, K., Morgan, A.C., Nahum,
J.P. et al. (1998). The process of therapeutic change involving implicit knowledge: some implications of developmental observations for adultpsychotherapy. Infant Mental Health Journal, 19 (3), 300–308.
Stern, D.N. (2008). Diary of a baby: what your child sees, feels, and experiences. New York: Basic Books.
Taipale, J. (2014). Phenomenology and embodiment. Husserl and the constitution of subjectivity. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv4cbhkv
Thoma, S., Fuchs, T. (2018a). Inhabiting the shared world. Phenomenological considerations on sensus communis, social space and schizophrenia. In: J. Con alves, I. Hip lito, J. Pereira (Eds.), Schizophrenia and common sense –explaining the relation between madness and social values (pp. 19–37). New York: Springer.
Thoma, S., Fuchs, T. (2018b). A phenomenology of sensus communis: outline of a phe-nome- nological approach to social psychiatry. In: M. Englander (Ed.), Phenomenology and the social context of psychiatry: social relations, psychopathology, and Husserl’s philosophy (pp. 137–59). London: Bloomsbury.
Tschacher, W., Rees, G.M., Ramseyer, F. (2014). Nonverbal synchrony and affect in dyadic in- teractions. Frontiers in Psychology, Nov., 5, 1323.
Willi, J. (1982). Couples in collusion. Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson.
Willi, J. (1999). Ecological psychotherapy: developing by shaping the personal niche. Boston: Hogrefe & Huber.
Amini, F., Lewis, T., Lannon, R., Louie, A., Baumbacher, G., McGuinness, T. et al. (1996). Affect, attachment, memory: contributions toward psychobiologic integration. Psychiatry, 59 (3), 213–39.
Barker, R.G. (1968). Ecological psychology. Concepts and methods for studying the environment of human behavior. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Beebe, B., Lachmann, F. (2003). The relational turn in psychoanalysis: a dyadic systems view from infant research. Contemporary psychoanalysis, 39 (3), 379–409.
Brandchaft, B., Atwood, G.E., Stolorow, R.D. (2014). Psychoanalytic treatment: an intersubjec- tive approach. New York, London: Routledge.
Casey, E. (2000). Remembering. A phenomenological study. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Cohen, D.B. (2006). Family constellations: an innovative systemic phenomenological group process from Germany. The Family Journal, Jul., 14 (3), 226–233.
Davis, M. (Ed.) (1982). Interaction rhythms. Periodicity in communicative behavior. New York: Human Sciences Press.
De Haan, S. (2019). An enactive approach to psychiatry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gendlin, E.T. (2012). Focusing-oriented psychotherapy: a manual of the experiential method. New York: Guilford Press.
Gerson, S. (2004). The relational unconscious: a core element of intersubjectivity, thirdness, and clinical process. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Jan., 73 (1), 63–98.
Gibson, J.J. (1986). The ecological approach to visual perception. Hillsdale, NJ: Psychology Press. Graumann, C.F. (Ed.) (1978). kologische Perspektiven in der Psychologie. Bern: Huber. Griffero, T. (2014). Atmospheres and lived space. Studia Phaenomenologica, 14, 29–51. Griffero, T. (2016). Atmospheres: aesthetics of emotional spaces. New York, London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315568287
Francesetti, G. (2015). From individual symptoms to psychopathological fields: towards a field perspective on clinical human suffering. British Gestalt journal, 24 (1), 5–19.
Froese, T., Fuchs, T. (2012). The extended body: a case study in the neurophenomenology of social interaction. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 11 (2), 205–236.
Fuchs, T. (2005). Corporealized and disembodied minds. A phenomenological view of the body in melancholia and schizophrenia. Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, 12 (2), 95–107.
Fuchs, T. (2007). Psychotherapy of the lived space: a phenomenological and ecological concept. American journal of psychotherapy, 61 (4), 423–39.
Fuchs, T. (2011). Body memory and the unconscious. In: G. Lohmar, J. Brudzinska (Eds.),
Founding psychoanalysis. Phenomenological theory of subjectivity and the psychoanalytical experience (pp. 69–82). Dordrecht: Kluwer. Fuchs,T.(2012).Thephenomenologyofbodymemory.In:S.Koch,T.Fuchs,M.Summa,C.M l-
ler (Eds.), Body memory, metaphor and movement (pp. 9–22). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Fuchs, T. (2013a). Depression, intercorporality and interaffectivity. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 20 (7–8), 219–38.
Fuchs, T. (2013b). The phenomenology of affectivity. In: K.W. Fulford, M. Davies, R. Gipps,
G. Graham, J. Sadler, G. Stanghellini et al. (Eds.), Oxford handbook of the philosophy of psychiatry (pp. 612–631). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fuchs, T. (2017). Intercorporeality and interaffectivity. In: C. Meyer, J. Streeck, S. Jordan (Eds.),
Intercorporeality: emerging socialities in interaction (pp. 3–24). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Fuchs, T. (2018). Ecology of the brain. The phenomenology and biology of the embodied mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fuchs, T., De Jaegher, H. (2009). Enactive intersubjectivity: participatory sense-making and
mutual incorporation. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Dec., 8 (4), 465–86. Fuchs, T., Schlimme, J.E. (2009). Embodiment and psychopathology: a phenomenological perspective. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, Nov., 22 (6), 570–5.
Kendon, A. (1990). Conducting interaction: patterns of behavior in focused encounters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leder, D. (1990). The absent body. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Levenson, R.W., Ruef, A.M. (1997). Physiological aspects of emotional knowledge and rapport.
In: W. Ickes (Ed.), Empathic accuracy (pp. 44–72). New York: Guilford Press.
Lewin, K. (1936). Principles of topological psychology / Tr. by F. Heider, G. Heider. New York: McGraw Hill. https://doi.org/10.1037/10019-000
Mehling, W.E., Wrubel, J., Daubenmier, J.J., Price, C.J., Kerr, C.E., Silow, T., Gopisetty, V., Stewart, A.L. (2011). Body awareness: a phenomenological inquiry into the common ground
of mind-body therapies. Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine, Apr., 6, 6. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of perception / Tr. by C. Smith. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1964). Le visible et l’invisible. Paris: Gallimard.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1973). Adventures of the dialectic / Tr. by J. Bien. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
Merten, J., Krause, R. (2003). What makes good therapists fail? In: P. Philippot, E.J. Coats, R.S.
Feldman (Eds.), Nonverbal behavior in clinical settings (pp. 111–24). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Meyer, C., Streeck, J., Jordan, J.S. (Eds.) (2017). Intercorporeality: emerging socialities in interaction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190210465.001.0001
Mikulincer, M., Shaver, P.R. (2012). An attachment perspective on psychopathology. World Psychiatry, Feb., 11 (1), 11–5.
Minkowski, E. (1970). Lived time: phenomenological and psychopathological studies / Tr. by N. Metzel. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
Nielsen, K., Ward, T. (2018). Towards a new conceptual framework for psychopathology: embodiment, enactivism, and embedment. Theory & Psychology, Nov., 28 (6), 800–822. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354318808394
Pallagrosi, M., Fonzi, L. (2018). On the concept of praecox feeling. Psychopathology, 51 (6), 353–361.
Palazzoli, M.S. (1988). The work of Mara Selvini Palazzoli. Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson. Payne, H., Koch, S., Tantia, J., Fuchs, T. (Eds.) (2019). Embodied perspectives in psychotherapy. London, New York: Routledge.
Pollatos, O., Herbert, B.M., Wankner, S., Dietel, A., Wachsmuth, C., Henningsen, P. et al.
(2011). Autonomic imbalance is associated with reduced facial recognition in somatoform
disorders. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Oct., 71 (4), 232–239. Pollatos,O.,Kurz,A.L.,Albrecht,J.,Schreder,T.,Kleemann,A.M.,Sch pf,V.etal.(2008).Re- duced perception of bodily signals in anorexia nervosa. Eating Behaviors, Dec., 9 (4), 381–388.
Ramseyer, F., Tschacher, W. (2011). Nonverbal synchrony in psychotherapy: coordinated body
movement reflects relationship quality and outcome. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Jun., 79 (3), 284–295.
Ratcliffe, M. (2008). Feelings of being. Phenomenology, psychiatry and the sense of reality. Oxford:
Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780199206469.001.0001 Ruemke, H.C. (1990). The nuclear symptoms of schizophrenia and the praecox feeling / Tr. by J. Neeleman. History of Psychiatry, Sep., 1 (3), 331–341.
Seikkula, J. (2019). Psychosis is not an illness but a survival strategy in severe stress: a proposal
for an addition to a phenomenological point of view. Psychopathology. https://doi.org/10.1159/ 000500162
Seikkula, J., Alakare, B., Aaltonen, J. (2011). The comprehensive open-dialogue approach in
Western Lapland: II. Long-term stability of acute psychosis outcomes in advanced community care. Psychosis, 3 (3), 192–204.
Stiefel, I.P., Harris, P., Zollmann, A.W. (2002). Family constellation: a therapy beyond words. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, Mar., 23 (1), 38–44.
Stanghellini, G. (2004). Disembodied spirits and deanimated bodies: the psychopathol-ogy of common sense. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198520894.001.0001 Stanghellini, G. (2016). Lost in dialogue. Anthropology, psychopathology, and care. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi. org/10.1093/med/9780198792062.001.0001
Stanghellini, G. (2019). The PHD method for psychotherapy. Integrating phenomenology, hermeneutics and psychodynamics. Psychopathology. https://doi.org/ 10.1159/000500272 Stern, D.N. (1985). The interpersonal world of the infant. A view from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology. New York: Basic Books. Stern, D.N., Bruschweiler-Stern, N., Harrison, A.M., Lyons-Ruth, K., Morgan, A.C., Nahum,
J.P. et al. (1998). The process of therapeutic change involving implicit knowledge: some implications of developmental observations for adultpsychotherapy. Infant Mental Health Journal, 19 (3), 300–308.
Stern, D.N. (2008). Diary of a baby: what your child sees, feels, and experiences. New York: Basic Books.
Taipale, J. (2014). Phenomenology and embodiment. Husserl and the constitution of subjectivity. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv4cbhkv
Thoma, S., Fuchs, T. (2018a). Inhabiting the shared world. Phenomenological considerations on sensus communis, social space and schizophrenia. In: J. Con alves, I. Hip lito, J. Pereira (Eds.), Schizophrenia and common sense –explaining the relation between madness and social values (pp. 19–37). New York: Springer.
Thoma, S., Fuchs, T. (2018b). A phenomenology of sensus communis: outline of a phe-nome- nological approach to social psychiatry. In: M. Englander (Ed.), Phenomenology and the social context of psychiatry: social relations, psychopathology, and Husserl’s philosophy (pp. 137–59). London: Bloomsbury.
Tschacher, W., Rees, G.M., Ramseyer, F. (2014). Nonverbal synchrony and affect in dyadic in- teractions. Frontiers in Psychology, Nov., 5, 1323.
Willi, J. (1982). Couples in collusion. Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson.
Willi, J. (1999). Ecological psychotherapy: developing by shaping the personal niche. Boston: Hogrefe & Huber.
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Fuchs, T. (2020). THE INTERACTIVE PHENOMENAL FIELD AND THE LIFE SPACE: A Sketch of an Ecological Concept of Psychotherapy. Filosofska Dumka, (4), 76–90. Retrieved from https://dumka.philosophy.ua/index.php/fd/article/view/481
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